1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to data security, and more specifically to data classification.
2. Description of the Related Art
Modern business organizations maintain and analyze large amounts of data regarding their consumers, consumer behavior, markets in which products are sold, etc. Some of the data maintained by the organizations may be sensitive, for example, consumer social security numbers, bank account numbers, credit card information, health records, insurance data, and the like. Protection of such sensitive information may be crucial to assuring customers of the organization that their identities are safe. For example, most organizations that offer credit cards implement the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) to prevent credit card fraud and other security vulnerabilities and threats while processing credit card transactions. Data security has also been emphasized by several recent regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Generally, the data security standards and regulations require that data be provided only on a “need to know” basis. That is, access to data is given only to those individuals that “need to know” the data.